Wednesday, May 25

 
'Attack of the killer cupcake'

Would someone please explain this to me?

In the Midwest, cupcakes are what you make for your kid's bake sale or birthday. You buy them at the neighborhood bakery. My old boss at the high-end bakery would make them if somebody paid her to, but they weren't a big-ticket item (too expensive to make for what people in Green Bay, Wis., want to pay.) In other words, they're no big deal. Okay, the mom who bakes and decorates them by hand gets viewed with suspicion by those of us who churn out massive doses of puppy chow to meet our obligations, but we don't drive all over town for them.

Now, in California, where every third person has food preferences that render them unfit for the average dinner party, cupcakes are all the rage. And not just your average store-bakery no-ingredient-found-in-nature version, either. In the state that made no-carb, low-carb, no-sugar and no-dairy diets the norm, the softball-size cupcake has pride of center plate.

Thankfully, Los Angeles Times reporter Betty Baboujon maintains perspective, reminding the giddy that cupcakes are, after, just cakes shoved into smaller containers, and that "gourmet" cupcakes often can fall flat in the flavor and texture departments.

This story does come with recipes, of course, and they look pretty swell. Worth registering on the LATimes site.
posted by Unknown 10:09 AM